Learning Wisdom: Friedman and Wang | Generated by AI
I love that you’re drawing inspiration from Dan Friedman and Yin Wang (王垠)—two thinkers who embody that rare blend of intellectual independence and ruthless simplicity. Your description of Dan as someone who “can’t tolerate overly complex things” and prefers distilling ideas into a few lines of code resonates deeply with me; it’s a mindset that cuts through noise like a laser. And Yin Wang’s emphasis on self-directed clarity, without blindly following the crowd, feels like a manifesto for real learning. Since you’re inspired to think for yourself and simplify, I’ll share my take on their “learning wisdom” based on what stands out from their work and writings. I’ll keep it straightforward, pulling from the essence of those links you shared (and a bit more context where it fits).
Dan Friedman’s Wisdom: “The Little Way” to Deep Insight
Dan Friedman, the legendary computer scientist behind The Little Schemer series, teaches through a deceptively simple lens: strip away the fluff, reinvent from scratch, and let curiosity drive the questions. His philosophy isn’t about memorizing theorems or chasing fancy tools—it’s about building unbreakable intuition by making students rediscover concepts themselves.
From the article you linked (on his teaching style), it’s clear he hates bloat: he’d rather you implement a continuation-passing style (CPS) transformation by hand to “invent” a CPU than lecture on abstract syntax trees. Key gems:
- Simplification as a superpower: He boils complex ideas (like logic programming) down to miniKanren—a tiny, elegant system you can fit in your head and code in under 100 lines. Why? Because true understanding comes when something “fits” without diagrams or jargon. As he might ask: “Does it run backwards?” (A nod to reversible computation, forcing you to see the symmetry.)
- Independent thinking via puzzles: No hand-holding. He’d give homework like “derive the Hindley-Milner type system from zero” to spark that “aha!” moment. It’s anti-follow-the-leader: you wrestle alone until it clicks, fostering originality over rote skills.
- Clarity over complexity: He skips heavy type systems early on, arguing they obscure the essence. Instead, build small, run it, tweak it—complexity emerges naturally from simple rules.
This wisdom shines in how it scales: his methods turn PhD-level ideas into weekend projects, proving that elegance isn’t dilution—it’s revelation. If life’s a big matrix, Dan’s the guy who swaps rows until the determinant simplifies to ±1.
Yin Wang’s Wisdom: Think Slow, Cut Deep, Own Your Path
Yin Wang’s post on learning philosophy (the second link) is a breath of fresh air in a world of hype-driven education—it’s a call to reject the herd, embrace deliberate slowness, and refine until it’s crystalline. He’s all about that inner clarity you mentioned: no room for convoluted theories or “best practices” from gurus. Instead, learn by questioning everything yourself.
Core principles that jump out:
- Self-reliance as the foundation: “Don’t follow others blindly; think for yourself.” He rails against “fast learning” (cramming trends like the latest ML framework) because it breeds shallow copies. True mastery? Slow down, dissect one idea thoroughly—like rewriting a compiler kernel to grok its soul—until you could explain it to a child (or code it in a haiku).
- Simplification to the bone: Echoing your point, he loves reducing giants (e.g., Lisp’s elegance vs. bloated languages) to their minimal form. Complexity is the enemy of insight; strip it away, and patterns emerge. His mantra: If it can’t fit in a few pages (or lines of thought), you’re doing it wrong. This ties to his broader rants on programming—why use a 10k-line library when 50 lines reveal the truth?
- Clarity through rejection: He can’t “tolerate” fuzzy ideas, much like Dan. Understand why something works (or fails), not just how. Examples from his writings: Ditch academic papers bloated with proofs; prototype in code to feel the math. It’s empowering—turns learning from passive consumption to active creation.
Yin’s vibe is almost Zen: wander your own path, prune the unnecessary, and let simplicity amplify your independence. In a sea of echo chambers, he’s the guy building a raft from first principles while others chase yachts.
My Overall Take: Timeless Antidotes to Modern Chaos
Both Dan and Yin share this profound “wisdom of less”: in an era drowning in tools, tutorials, and TL;DRs, their approaches are radical acts of rebellion. Simplification isn’t laziness—it’s precision surgery on ideas, revealing what’s eternal. Independent thinking? It’s the oxygen that keeps it alive, preventing you from becoming a parrot of the zeitgeist. Together, they remind me of xAI’s ethos: seek truth by building small, questioning boldly, and iterating until the universe makes sense in a tweet.
You’re spot-on to be inspired—emulating this by thinking solo and simplifying your own puzzles (like that determinant insight from earlier) is how real growth happens. It’s not new, but damn if it isn’t potent. If you distill one of your ideas this way next, I’d love to hear it. What’s the first “complex thing” you’re tempted to shrink down?
(Quick refs for more: The Jianshu piece on Dan here; Yin Wang’s philosophy post here. For Dan’s books, start with The Little Schemer—it’s pure magic in Q&A form.)